Twenty-Something

Spektre wrote:There is a strange effect described correctly by quantum physics whereby if you pass light through two near field slits, two possible behaviors can occur.

If you measure the photons, so that you are aware which of the two slits they pass through, the light behaves as particles and clump up in a distribution of two lines on a film behind the slits.

If you do NOT measure the photons, and as such have no idea what slit they travelled through, the light acts as a wave, and what you observe on the film is an interference pattern like when ripples from two pebbles dropped in water interact with one another.

One explanation for the change in behavior between the two cases has classically been something in the measurement must have affected the photons and thus the outcome of the experiment.

So, an elaborate experiment was set up whereby (through beam splitters and prisms) you actually measure which slit the photons go through long in the future (long in a speed of light sense) from when they actually did and long after they have already formed either a clump of two lines, or an interference pattern. In fact we measure some of them but not others.

What we find is, the ones we measure actually formed two clumps, and the ones we do not formed an interference pattern. This is fascinating, as it would seem impossible that photons, that have already passed through a slit and struck a film, long before we actually measure which slit they passed through, could somehow be influenced by a measurement taken AFTER they struck the film...yet there ya go.

Sounds like the kind of book my father loves.Did you think the book was easy to understand?

Twenty-Something

Spektre wrote:There is a strange effect described correctly by quantum physics whereby if you pass light through two near field slits, two possible behaviors can occur.

If you measure the photons, so that you are aware which of the two slits they pass through, the light behaves as particles and clump up in a distribution of two lines on a film behind the slits.

If you do NOT measure the photons, and as such have no idea what slit they travelled through, the light acts as a wave, and what you observe on the film is an interference pattern like when ripples from two pebbles dropped in water interact with one another.

One explanation for the change in behavior between the two cases has classically been something in the measurement must have affected the photons and thus the outcome of the experiment.

So, an elaborate experiment was set up whereby (through beam splitters and prisms) you actually measure which slit the photons go through long in the future (long in a speed of light sense) from when they actually did and long after they have already formed either a clump of two lines, or an interference pattern. In fact we measure some of them but not others.

What we find is, the ones we measure actually formed two clumps, and the ones we do not formed an interference pattern. This is fascinating, as it would seem impossible that photons, that have already passed through a slit and struck a film, long before we actually measure which slit they passed through, could somehow be influenced by a measurement taken AFTER they struck the film...yet there ya go.

Sounds like the kind of book my father loves.Did you think the book was easy to understand?

Not a Kardashian

John Wesley Hardin's biography. Racist, self justifying bastard. And a mass murderer. But interesting for the dialect and look into the immediate post Civil War era from possibly the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West.

Xenophon's Persian Expedition. I understand they're making a movie out of that. It's sort of like 300, only with 10,000, and they make their way through the entire Persian Empire. It was a standard text in the original Attic Greek for schoolboys till about the end of the 19th century. It's a re-read for me.

Thus Spake Zarathustra. Like all philosophical books, not a fast read.

Not a Kardashian

John Wesley Hardin's biography. Racist, self justifying bastard. And a mass murderer. But interesting for the dialect and look into the immediate post Civil War era from possibly the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West.

Xenophon's Persian Expedition. I understand they're making a movie out of that. It's sort of like 300, only with 10,000, and they make their way through the entire Persian Empire. It was a standard text in the original Attic Greek for schoolboys till about the end of the 19th century. It's a re-read for me.

Thus Spake Zarathustra. Like all philosophical books, not a fast read.

Achilles is the kind of evil that hollows out a volcano for a lair, and sends killer robots after his enemies.---Lord Simian

Twenty-Something

achilles wrote:John Wesley Hardin's biography. Racist, self justifying bastard. And a mass murderer. But interesting for the dialect and look into the immediate post Civil War era from possibly the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West.

Xenophon's Persian Expedition. I understand they're making a movie out of that. It's sort of like 300, only with 10,000, and they make their way through the entire Persian Empire. It was a standard text in the original Attic Greek for schoolboys till about the end of the 19th century. It's a re-read for me.

Thus Spake Zarathustra. Like all philosophical books, not a fast read.

I've read Xenophon's book translated as Anabasis. I loved it when I first read it and I need to re-read it one of these days.

Twenty-Something

achilles wrote:John Wesley Hardin's biography. Racist, self justifying bastard. And a mass murderer. But interesting for the dialect and look into the immediate post Civil War era from possibly the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West.

Xenophon's Persian Expedition. I understand they're making a movie out of that. It's sort of like 300, only with 10,000, and they make their way through the entire Persian Empire. It was a standard text in the original Attic Greek for schoolboys till about the end of the 19th century. It's a re-read for me.

Thus Spake Zarathustra. Like all philosophical books, not a fast read.

I've read Xenophon's book translated as Anabasis. I loved it when I first read it and I need to re-read it one of these days.

FROGMAN

Arion wrote:Sounds like the kind of book my father loves.Did you think the book was easy to understand?

Like I said when I listed it, technically it is a white paper, not a book.On the ease of reading scale I'd put it as very difficult. There is a good bit of wave function math to wade through.

- Continuity is or it is not. There is no such thing as soft continuity.- A character IS his continuity.- Continuity is consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the reader or viewer.- The Outhouse. We're not CBR yet, but the mods are trying really hard.

Not a Kardashian

Spektre wrote:Like I said when I listed it, technically it is a white paper, not a book.On the ease of reading scale I'd put it as very difficult. There is a good bit of wave function math to wade through.

I've never heard of any treatment of quantum mechanics that was easy...

It's just not an easy subject, since so much of it seems counter-intuitive.

Not a Kardashian

Spektre wrote:Like I said when I listed it, technically it is a white paper, not a book.On the ease of reading scale I'd put it as very difficult. There is a good bit of wave function math to wade through.

I've never heard of any treatment of quantum mechanics that was easy...

It's just not an easy subject, since so much of it seems counter-intuitive.

Achilles is the kind of evil that hollows out a volcano for a lair, and sends killer robots after his enemies.---Lord Simian

Twenty-Something

Spektre wrote:Like I said when I listed it, technically it is a white paper, not a book.On the ease of reading scale I'd put it as very difficult. There is a good bit of wave function math to wade through.

Twenty-Something

Spektre wrote:Like I said when I listed it, technically it is a white paper, not a book.On the ease of reading scale I'd put it as very difficult. There is a good bit of wave function math to wade through.

FROGMAN

achilles wrote:I've never heard of any treatment of quantum mechanics that was easy...

It's just not an easy subject, since so much of it seems counter-intuitive.

I wonder if it is counter-intuitive because we were taught so differently while growing up. I mean had you been taught QM instead of Newtonian physics would it seem easier?

- Continuity is or it is not. There is no such thing as soft continuity.- A character IS his continuity.- Continuity is consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the reader or viewer.- The Outhouse. We're not CBR yet, but the mods are trying really hard.